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Boxee Launches New API
A recent post on the boxee blog announces the release of a new, fully documented API that will allow developers to create and share new apps and plugins. "The new boxee API enables developers to build sophisticated applications (such as the Pandora and RadioTime apps) using a set of API calls in Python and writing the GUI using XML. ... Users can install new applications via the boxee App Box, the beginnings of our app store. Unlike other app stores, boxee does not want to be a gate keeper (or bottleneck) in deciding which applications are published so anyone can become a publisher." A complete description is available at their developers page. I'm sure this will help in their ongoing battle with Hulu.
A boxee app store? I understand that they are working on getting hardware created, but they are expecting people to pay for little applets that will run under boxee on hardware that you either had to build yourself or hack to even run it in the first place? And even after their own device is out, how many people are going to buy it [b]and[/b] buy plugins for it?
I also understand that if they aren't thinking big, they might as well not even try (think you can or think you can't..) but I just don't see this being even remotely successful. People use their iPhone because its "cool" and want it to do everything their computer does while they're on the road. If you want the functionality of a computer while you're in your living room, get up and walk to your office.
Whale
What BS. They only do this to make money. They think (and probably rightly so) that by opening the floodgates they can make a crapload of money. Either now or later when Google buys them out.
I hope it works, but don't try to scam me into thinking it's for the good of the community.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
I for one welcome our quazi-Nazi Communist pedophile OSS fucking freetard Overlords.
Sent from your iPad.
An app store is an excellent incentive for developers to invest the time to create Boxee plugins. That's something missing from MythTV. For instance, I'd like to see a MAME plugin for Boxee. Who's going to integrate it? With an app store, there's the possibility people will pay a buck or two for each installation.
Also, the barrier to entry for Boxee is much less than other set-top platforms. It runs as a standalone application on Mac OS X (intel), Ubuntu, and WinXP. You can install the application, start it, connect video out to your TV set, and install a remote control app on your iPhone and the whole deal probably takes less than an hour.
Seth
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
Curious how different this is from creating plug-ins in XBMC? Seems like Boxee = XBMC + Pretty Skin + Marketing $$$....
Upcoming Boxee features include:
Bow-ties are cool.
Oh god, now I have that voice stuck in my head. "My name is Boxxy". FFFFFFFFUUUUUUU-
in after 4chan. Notice the "!boxxy" tag? :D
This looks very similar to what they're doing with the Mac fork of XBMC, Plex. It's very cool how they implemented it, basically making Plex a frontend for Safari with the plug-in defining the area of the browser that the video is in. This way, as far as the site is concerned, someone is using the browser like normal.
They also have an App Store but it's not designed to be for pay, and I would doubt the Boxee one is either. I had never used Python before but I was able to whip up some plug-ins which are now available in the store.
http://www.plexapp.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yavx9yxTrsw
She's kind of like the distilled essence of a certain type of girl that some HATE with a passion, and others LOVE with the same strength. I have a feeling she's actually a fairly clever girl with lots of deliberately affected mannerisms.
All girls do. But they change randomly, and you can never make any assumptions about the APIs...
There was a better joke in here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it. Damn nicotine withdrawal.
.
Nobody can answer this 2-part question honestly: What is Boxee doing wrong to piss off Hulu? What is PlayOn ($40 dlna server) doing right that lets me stream Hulu from my XP box to my Xbox 360, PS3, Popcorn Hour or any other dlna client via transcoding the FLV stream?
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
I signed up for boxxee to check it out, but the only machine I have that would possibly be capable of playing with it on is runing 64 bit ubuntu. Grrrr.
Maybe I'll give the xbmc livecd a try instead.
Hulu doesn't have a license to serve content through Boxee. Hulu pays a fee to show the programs that it does. I'd be shocked if the license provides for the redistribution to outside entities that aren't a party to the licensing agreement.
Use an e-cigarette to smoke, my good man!
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
NO! You are everything that's wrong with the damn internets!
So, does Hulu's content pass through Boxee's servers and then Boxee redistributes to its users? That's what the problem is then? With PlayOn, Hulu goes straight to my computer where it's transcoded and made available on my home network. The funny part is that I can connect to the PlayOn stream with Boxee if I add it as a source (although I prefer XBMC).
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
What is Boxee doing wrong to piss off Hulu?
The problem isn't with Boxee per-se or necessarily Hulu. It is with the content providers that give Hulu its content (and I think own Hulu).
Boxee is making it easy for people to watch Internet videos on your TV. That is what is scaring the content providers. They DO NOT want you to link (physically or mentally) your TV with free internet based video. Because then you might realize you don't need to pay for your expensive cable subscription when you can just wait a day and watch it on Hulu when you want to.
Boxee just accesses Hulu's site and displays the video, they don't take out the commercials or anything. The content providers just don't want you using Hulu on your actual TV.
Did anyone else think the title referred to "box lunches"? Maybe I'm just hungry.
I might be indecisive, but I'm not really sure. What do you think?
The content providers just don't want you using Hulu on your actual TV.
But most TVs sold over the past few years, at least the HDTV LCD and Plasma ones (but not my SDTV unfortunately) have at least one DB15 (vga) or HDMI input. There really isn't much to stop even a fairly clueless tech user from hooking a laptop up to their TV and watching Hulu on the TV. I do think you are right, oracleguy01, that the content providers are trying to make a distinction between TV and PC, but the with the way these things are converging I think they are going to lose on this one. A laptop (which most people already have) and a $16 vga cable from RadioShack http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2261573&tab=techSpecs is really all that is needed to watch the likes of Hulu on a modern TV.
I have a feeling you only said that because you secretly hope she reads Slashdot and will now like you.
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
If you wish me to believe that then you need to provide a plausible explanation of why the content providers are afraid. You have not done that. The content providers make money by advertisements - not by cable subscriptions. Therefore the more eyes they can get watching the ads the better for them. The more users who will use their large screen HDTVs and not be confined to a small laptop somewhere the more eyes on the money making ads. Therefore your statement above is implausible at best.
Also, I've already given up my cable subscription. Indeed, this is bleeding edge right now and only early adopters are doing this. These early adopters are geeks who are by and large pissed off with crappy service from over-priced cable companies. They aren't dumb and realize that this is a way to dump their cable companies. IOW they already realize this! What Boxee does is not really different then what PlayOn does. Yet Boxee gets blocked and PlayOn doesn't. Why? You haven't addressed that issue. But I will below.
And here's the real difference. Being Open Source, there's nothing that stops people from making something to zap the commercials or indeed steal and even redistribute the content! Get that? The content!!! Stealing content! Now that would piss off a content provider. Zapping commercials! Now that would piss of any business who derives profit from having commercials viewed. With PlayOn, being closed source, the content providers feel a bit more safe that zapping commercials and stealing content will be prohibited - or at least not easily reverse engineered.
What I describe above is not all that difficult to arrive at yet I'm constantly amazed that people seem to much rather grab on to some odd excuse about how the big bad media wants you to use a teeny weeny screen. Makes no sense whatsoever!
You're absolutely wrong. I've already pointed this out in another thread and it's been covered in multiple places since Boxee was banned from Hulu.
The cable/sat companies are the driving force behind this issue. The advertising revenue is actually DOWN right now. The cable companies paying for content actually make up the largest part of revenue for the content creators.
Content providers actually get to double dip right now. They cable/sat companies pay for the content and they get, if the ad is national (some ads are local and NBC corp doesn't get that revenue), they get another chunk.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"